


sightings categorized as UNIDENTIFIED are extraterrestrial vehicles

by sternflotte



Series: Stranger Things Season 3 [2]
Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Fluff, Gen, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Post-Season/Series 02, Steve as Hawkins best Mom Friend(tm, Steve is a Domestic God, a vaguely plotty fic, since Max's stepfather is a child abusing douche canoe
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-30
Updated: 2017-11-10
Packaged: 2019-01-26 17:29:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,604
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12562512
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sternflotte/pseuds/sternflotte
Summary: Steve Harrington deals with the aftermath of Monster Hunting, befriending middleschoolers, always being in close proximity of his ex-Girlfriend and the supernatural crisis #239823123 of his stupid little town.





	1. The Babysitter Club

**Author's Note:**

> I love Steve. Steve is a great PoV in a monster crisis, since he is insanely UNCHILL and thus super fun to write. Also, his Mom/Babysitter tendancies are GREAT and completely fun and I hope I can channel my inner Mom into him. 
> 
> I am not sure yet where this is going, since I am not an Outliner, but I have a vague idea. I wrote a oneshot about Steve and Nancy's relationship immediately after the end of season 2, but it is honestly so bitter and mean that it is not what I am building this story on. You can still go read that, but do not worry: This story will (mostly) be fluffy and non-angsty. 
> 
> I hope you enjoy this story as much as I enjoyed writing it!

 

 

It takes another month after the second fucking monster hunt that Steve feels comfortable enough at home to sleep without all the lights in his room lit. Still he keeps the light in the hallway on, checking on it every few minutes while he lies motionless on his bed unable to sleep.

He wonders sometimes if he is the only one too chickenshit to deal with the entire mess properly. He keeps his bat, along with a revolver and 3 boxes of ammo, hidden in the trunk of his car and another bat leans propped up against his bed at all times. His mother had, upon returning from her yearly retreat to Colorado, taken a look at the four locks Steve had added to the front and back door and sighed heavily, shaking her head in frustration.

When Dustin comes to his home one day, a few days after New Years, looking at the locks with a nod. “I convinced my mom to at least lock the door at night.” It settles some of Steve's anxieties at least, the hope that he is not the only one suddenly overly aware of every creak in the night.

After that night in November, Steve had sort of assumed that he would be done with it all now. After all his tie to the monster had only been through Nancy, and they were done now. He had not counted on Dustin and Mrs Byers though. Apparently bringing all the kid through the fight alive had earned him some kind of merit babysitter badge in Mrs Byers eyes and so, when neither she nor Jonathan were available, Steve had been recruited as Will's go-to-babysitter.

The first afternoon he had spent at Casa Byers with Will had been almost excruciatingly awkward, neither of them knowing what to do or what to say since, after all, Will's brother was dating Steve's ex-girlfriend.

“I don't need a babysitter.” Will tells him in unflinching words in the car when Steve picks him up from school, but it doesn't escape Steve's notice that Will looks around his house in apprehension when they enter. Will flinches like a frightened bunny when Steve lays a hand on his shoulder, but he clearly relaxes when they go through all of the rooms together to make sure that there is nothing hiding in the dark corners.

Steve keeps the nail-bat by his side as they sit in the well lit living room and Will starts drawing, nothing as disturbing as the veins under Hawkins, but rather a pretty picture of all his friends.

“You Byers are so artistic.” Steve says as he looks over Will's shoulder. There is a note of admiration in his voice, awkward enough since the last time he commented on a Byers ability, he had destroyed Jonathan's camera.

Will smiles. “Mom is a great singer.”

Steve nudges Will, with a smirk. “The most artistic thing I have ever done is draw a stick figure in art class.”

There is no answer and Steve shrinks back again, still awkwardly hovering near Will and unsure what to do with himself. He eventually starts building a house out of playing cards he finds on top of a cupboard, carefully placing one card on top of the other. The hours pass slowly, and eventually Steve feels his stomach trying to cannibalize itself and he gets up to look at the kitchen.

“What do you feel like eating, Will-my-man?” Steve asks loudly.

Will, the poor little dude, flinches, but he looks up. “I am not sure we have much more than eggs in the fridge.”

Steve suddenly has flashbacks to shoving a monster into the fridge and wonders what happened to that thing, and if Mrs Byers opened the door the next morning and had the fright of her life when a dema-dog fell towards her.

“Well Billiam. You are in luck.” Steve swings a pan around and points at Will with a flair. “You are in the presence of the egg master.”

Will only stares up at Steve, his stare blank enough to make Steve feel horribly out of place. Luckily there are eggs and bacon both in the fridge and with the old, not quite gone-bad-yet toast he finds on the counter, Steve whips up the most perfect bacon sandwich Will will ever eat in his life. At least so Steve hopes.

Will looks somewhat impressed when Steve serves him a tall sandwich and Steve grins broadly at him. “I'll let you in on a little secret Billiam Byers. I am a culinary god.”

“Maybe you can teach my mom.” Will says, around a bite of bacon sandwich, and Steve has the feeling the little man likes it. At least, the sandwich is gone in record time, and Steve slides his over to Will as well and the second sandwich is gone nearly as quickly.

“You want more?”

“It's fine.” Will mumbles, but Steve checks the fridge and thinks that he can probably make some bombass pancakes as well.

At the end of their Harrington-Breakfast-Dinner-Extravaganza, Will has eaten 2 bacon sandwiches, two stacks of pancakes and an Eggo Stack. Steve feels vaguely guilty about decimating Mrs Byers food supply, but he figures if the kid is this hungry he should have food.

The meal loosens Will's tongue as well and when Jonathan comes home an hour later from photography club or something or another, Will is telling Steve all about the awesome D&D campaign Mike planned a month ago. At least, Steve assumes that the campaign was awesome since Will's eyes are shining and he grins at the mention of it. Steve himself does not more about D&D than he did whenever Nancy started talking about the sciency-stuff she likes so much.

“Harrington.” Jonathan greets him, awkwardly cautious. His eyes scan the mess Steve left on the kitchen counter and he runs a hand over Will's hair and squeezes Will's shoulder. “You good, Will?”

“Oh come on Byers.” Steve rolls his eyes. “Billiam is awesome.”

Jonathan frowns at him, but he relaxes when Will smiles at Steve. “Alright. Well you can leave now Harrington. Thanks for helping.”

Jonathan holds out a twenty and Steve feels the indignation brimming in his chest. “I ain't taking your money, Byers. Billiam and I had a grand old time.”

“You spent 3 hours babysitting, Harrington. We always pay our babysitters.” There is an edge to Jonathan's voice, Will looks away uncomfortably, and Steve wonders into what pit he just accidentally stumbled now.

He cautiously takes the bill from Jonathan's clenched hands and tries to give Will a reassuring grin. “The next time I'll bring groceries and I'll show you the Harrington-Noodle-Extravaganza.”

Will laughs, a small and gentle sound, and when Steve offers, he bumps his fist against Steve's with a smile. Jonathan watches the scene with a blank, unreadable look and Steve rolls his eyes at him. Steve tells both Byers goodbye with an easy “See you” and leaves the house without looking back at the reactions.

************

“Harrington speaking.” The phone is tucked under Steve's chin as he answers, one hand holding a cooking spoon and the other flipping through his mom's recipe book.

“Steve?” The voice on the other side is tinny, soft and Steve frowns as he adjusts the phone slightly.

“Yeah. Steve Harrington.”

“Steve, it's Max.”

Max, as in “short for Maxine, don't call me Maxine”, Steve wonders. He straightens up and finally grabs the phone properly. “Max? Is everything okay?”

“Um.” Max sounds so hesitant, all the alarm sounds in Steve's head go off at once.

“Where are you? Do I need to bring the bat?” He asks, heart suddenly racing in his chest like a Ferrari. “Max, where are you?”

“I just, can you come pick me up?” Max asks. She rattles off an address, on the outskirts of town in one of the wealthier developments. It isn't too far from Steve's house. “Please?”

“Yeah of course. I'll be there in ten minutes.” Steve shuts off the gas stove and races to his car, not bothering to change into anything but the comfortable gym wear. His mind races as he goes through the possibilities. Was Max in danger? Did another monster come in from the – what did Mike Wheeler call it? The Upside Down? Or was it something else entirely? Did Billy finally get his revenge for whatever happened between him and the kids after Steve passed out during that last fight?

When Steve arrives, tires screeching, at the address Max mentioned, she sits in the driveway with her skateboard snapped and a tired but frustrated expression on her face. She perks up when she notices Steve and immediately gets into the car, slamming the door shut loudly.

Steve drives, unsure of what is hiding in that house, and when they are a few blocks away, he looks over at Max. “You okay?”

“Thank you. For picking me up.” Max says. She picks at the broken skateboard in her lap, and doesn't look up at Steve. He doesn't miss that she did not at all answer his question, but he figures there is a reason for that.

“Should I drive you somewhere?” Steve asks her.

Max shrugs. “I don't care.”

Steve looks at her, at her skateboard and makes a decision. “Are you okay with coming to my house? I was in the middle of making my mom's famous meatball spaghetti.”

Max shrugs again. The rest of the ride is spent in total silence. Steve doesn't know what to ask Max, he has no clue how to deal with upset teenage girls and she does not seem to be in any chatty mood at all.

By the time they get back to the house, the meatballs Steve had just been in the middle of frying off are cold again. Max quietly sits in a corner of the kitchen, watching Steve as he cooks, but she does smile when he places a steaming bowl of spaghetti before her nose.

“Why do you cook?” Max asks.

“My parents are at a conference in Denver.” Steve tells her.

“Billy never cooks. He just orders something or goes to a diner.” Max offers. Steve isn't sure how offended he should be that she is comparing him with Billy, but at least she is talking.

“I like to cook. It's relaxing.”

Max looks extremely skeptic, but she does not argue with him. They eat in almost silence, but when Max finishes her third helping Steve finally asks the question on his mind.

“Do you want to tell me why you needed to be picked up?” Steve asks. The sentence is carefully non-threatening, similar words to those he had heard his mother use to confront his father about his latest string of affairs.

Max eyes him, clearly thinking about it. Eventually she sighs, deflating completely and Steve winces. “Billy wasn't home and when Billy isn't home, Billy's father likes to take his anger out on me or my mom.”

Steve exhales. Great, he thinks. So he is harboring a girl from her stepfather. Which is a worthwhile cause but might also get Steve in a lot of trouble with his own parents since he doubts his father will be happy about that.

Max's face is hostile enough that Steve doesn't continue the line of questioning, just nodding. “I'll do the washing up, you can go do whatever.” He tells her. “You can use the phone to call your friends if you want.”

They go off into opposite ends of the house. Steve watches Max out of the corner of his eyes as she explores the house, looking through all the cheesy romance novels his mom buys and the movies Steve collects. He tries to work on his maths homework, which is so frustrating he has the urge to throw the entire notebook through the room. Max eventually settles on one of the movies and watches it quietly.

Eventually it gets so late that the sun has set long ago and when Steve looks at the clock it is almost 7PM already. “Should I drive you home?” He asks Max. He is not sure that letting Max stay is a good idea, actually he is pretty sure it is a horrendously bad idea.

“In an hour?” Max asks hopefully. “He'll be watching TV then.”

“Yeah sure.” Steve shrugs. What is another hour in this case?

Still, Max looks apprehensive as she sneaks back into her house and he waits on the street until he sees her face in the window of what is presumably her room. She gives him a thumbs up and that is his cue to leave again.

However little Steve puts on the afternoon that February, it seems to mean the world to Max, who starts coming to Steve's house after school to avoid going home whenever she cannot go to one of her friends. He never turns her away, often cooking for her, and sometimes for Dustin, Lucas, Mike and Will also. The first time his parents are home also, he claims to be babysitting which gets him a confused look from his father and an absent “okay darling” from his mother, and a horrified glance from Max. Steve suspects she had never thought about him living with his parents as well.

(Sometime in April, Max sports a rather impressive bruise the form of a hand on her upper arms. She claims she only fell off her skateboard, but neither she nor Steve think that Steve believe that lie. Steve starts looking into ways to get children out of an abusive home.)

 


	2. Late Night Ideas are the Best Ideas

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steve has an idea. The kids react.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A Short Halloween Special!

 

 

“STEVE!”

Steve sits upright in his bed, one hand on the bat that lives against Steve's bed, and he blinks in horror as the door to his bedroom is wrenched open and the Kids pile into his room. Only Will, that gentle child, looks vaguely guilty about waking Steve so rudely.

“Why are you sleeping, Steve. It is 4 PM.” Dustin says. The distinct tone of judgment in his tone does not exactly make Steve's sleep addled brain fonder of the boy standing at the foot of his bed.

“And I was sleeping.” Steve says flatly. “Why are you in my house?”

“Your mom lets us in.” Mike explains.

Of course, Steve thinks. His mother has taken a shine to the Wheeler kid, something about his perfect hair and perfect sweaters, which is very frustrating, thank you very much, because Steve too has perfect hair and perfect sweaters and his mom doesn't like him half as much as she likes Mike.

“Okay.” Steve says slowly. “My mom let you in because-”

“We need a car.”

“Of course.” Steve sighs. “And why do you-”

“What is this?” Max interrupts him loudly, waving around pages that she had taken from – Steve squints, yup, she had gone through his desk.

He flushes, recognizing the insomnia-ridden 3AM writing. The idea had come to Steve two hours after waking screaming from a nightmare, while reading one of the random fantasy romance novels he had taken from his mother's secret not-so-secret hiding place. Then, it had seemed like the bestest idea in the whole world, but now, after 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep, it just seems like the idiotic idea of an insomnia ridden fool.

Max repeats the question, looking impatient and Steve sighs again. He feels like he is being steamrolled by these stupid kids.

“I thought that maybe if we hunted a monster of another dimension, that there are other dimensions and other monsters out there and we should maybe hunt them.”

There is a brief moment of silence, then movements explodes in the room as Dustin and Lucas hurry to crowd Max to read the pages of scribbling. They are all talking quickly among each other and Steve can only watch in horror.

One of the pages go flying, and Steve – to his own horror – can see the words “UFO” underlined in thick red marker 3 times. God, what had he been thinking writing rubbish like that on actual paper. Everyone knew UFOs were a Russian Hoax.

But on the other hand, Steve actually knew a girl who could move things with her mind, so there was that.

Unwilling to deal with 5 hovering and sugar-hyped preteens while still lying in bed, Steve moves himself out of bed and awkwardly dresses in a jumper while the kids still stand next to him. They all truly have no boundaries anymore and there is something disturbing about the fact that they don't even care he is dressing himself in the same room as them. Maybe Steve should have a talk with all their parents, but that would just lead to difficult questions.

“This is brilliant!” Dustin exclaims. “absolutely brilliant.”

“Are you kidding?” Max protests shrilly. Steve has the feeling the girl is the only one of them who actually has any self preservation instinct. “There are no such things as ghosts!”

“We fought against the faceless monster and you are saying there are no such things as ghosts?” Dustin counters immediately.

“How did you even have this idea?” Mike asks.

“I, uh, was reading something highly scientific.” Steve lies, unwilling to confess to a bunch of teenagers that he was reading about Prince Fabiano the Dragonslayer. Each of the kids gives him a confused, if not outright judgmental side eye and he suppresses the urge to snap at them.

“It doesn't matter.” Will says after a moment, saving Steve from any reactions.

“Yeah. So what were you going to do?” Max asks. She waves the pages around.

Steve quirks an eyebrow. “Nothing.” He admits. “I didn't think it was a good idea.”

Lucas inhales in mock-outrage. “It's brilliant!” He says immediately. “We should go to the Library first and check if there are any similarly weird cases of-” He trails off, looking at Will.

“Imagine all the scientific discoveries we can make!” Dustin says dreamily, looking off into the half-distance.

Steve snorts. “Hold your horses. Who says that monsters even exist?”

“Well the laws of probability for one.” Dustin says. “You were on the right track actually.”

“Listen idiot, this was an nightmare fueled insomniac idea that I had a 4AM. Nothing about this makes sense!” Steve protests. He is getting an headache. “Why did you need me and my car anyways?”

“Oh!” Mike says, as if he had just remembered. “We need you to drive us to Hopper's cabin. We haven't seen El since the Snowball.”

Steve resolutely does not let his heart melt at that. He was there when Mike and 'El' reunited, something so genuinely nice and lovely that even Steve with his broken heart had felt like he could believe in true love again. Not that Steve had known who El was back then, but Dustin had filled him in properly since.

“And you know where Hopper's cabin is?” Steve asks.

They all nod.

“And neither Mrs Byers or the Chief will take you.” Steve confirms his suspicion when the kids all nod with various degrees of guilt. “Since you aren't allowed to see Eleven.”

Mike looks away, jaw clenching in a way Steve intimately remembers from Nancy. “It's bullshit.” He scoffs.

Steve is torn between taking the Chief's side – after all keeping Eleven safe was important, when parts of the government were still on her tail – and just sympathizing with Mike. He wants nothing more than to tell Mike to trust the adults, but then again that would make Steve about as hypocritical as anything.

“I -” Steve trails off at the disappointed expression on all their faces. “I can drive you to the library.” He adds hopefully.

Dustin gets the dreamy look of potential discovery again, and he sighs. “Ghosts.”

“Pardon?”

“What do we really know about ghosts?” Dustin muses. “Only that-”

Dustin is interrupted when Mike firmly clasps his hand over his mouth. “Dustin! No one cares.”

“Well-” Max starts, but a single glare from Mike stop her short.

“We came here to get to the cabin!” Mike tells them all in unflinching tones. “Hopper kept El a secret for a fucking year. He can't fucking do this again.”

No one says a word in response and Steve fidgets with the piece of paper in his hands. “I am sorry Mike. But if you can't get permission from Hopper or Mrs Byers ...”

Mike looks furious, and he looks to be ready to start yelling at Steve, but instead he leaves the door without saying a word and they all listen in silence until the front door slams shut, vibrating through the house.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The responses to the little fic have been amazing! I am so glad you all enjoy frazzled!Steve as much as I do, and I hope the rest of this little fic is up to par as well! Thank you all so much for all Kudos & Reviews!


	3. Research.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steve's Idea is fleshed out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the response to this fic has been AMAZING and thank you all so so so so so much for every kudos, every review and every bookmark.   
> please enjoy pt3

 

 

 

Despite Steve's protests, the Kids don't forget about Steve's Idea (known only as such for reasons Steve isn't exactly 100% about) and Dustin, taking control of the promise of new discoveries, had assigned them all research. It's like this, Steve finds himself knocking on the Byers front door reluctantly.

He could hear excited voices coming in from inside the house and someone runs up to the door and janks it open.

“Steve!” Dustin greets him, with a broad grin.

From inside the house, his name is repeated by at least 3, if not 4, people, and Steve waves awkwardly at Joyce and Jonathan as they step into his line of vision.

“What are you doing here?” Jonathan asks, rudely. Well, Steve would probably be rude too if Jonathan just suddenly showed up at his house, so he gets it, but still. Rude.

Dustin takes the library books out of Steve's hand and grins. “You brought them! Awesome!” It is typical for Dustin to completely breeze over any awkwardness, which Steve supposes is a quality he should be admiring right about now.

“The Librarian actually told me to tell you that 3 of your books are overdue.” Steve says. He sounds horrifically fond, which is a development Steve truly could not have seen coming.

Dustin rolls his eyes and makes his way back into the house, and Steve follows him with an awkward smile towards Joyce and Jonathan. Will and Mike look up as he enters. Both are sitting on the bed while Lucas is sprawled on the floor before them and books are scattered all around. Steve strangely feels as though he is intruding on one of Nancy's study sessions.

“What are you even looking for?” Steve asks into the room, begging any of them to answer. To be completely honest, Steve has absolutely no idea what they are looking for. Dustin had muttered something about probability and myths last week, but he could have said that in Russian and Steve would have understood about the same.

“So Mike and I went through the archiv at the library and looked for any article that could be sort of supernatural.” Lucas explains.

Yeah. Steve isn't sure what that means either.

“What do you mean? Supernatural?”

“Well, we were thinking that unexplained deaths might be one criteria.” Dustin says “And other creepy shit like that.”

Okay. Steve nods, trying to wrap his head around that. “Well did you find anything?”

The boys looks at each other and eventually Mike sighs. “No, not really.”

“Not really?” Will asks, leaning back to look at Mike. “You never said, not really before.”

Mike hesistates. “Well,” Steve holds his breath, “there was one thing.” Steve finds himself leaning forward slightly, seeing Dustin doing the same out of the corner of his eyes. “So about 2 years ago in a town not so far from here 30 cows were killed on the field. According to the article, cops suspected a neighboring farmer but he had a pretty solid alibi for that night.”

“So. Cows.” Lucas says, every word sharply pointed.

Mike shrugs. “I just thought it was strange. 30 cows dead just like that and I mean-” His eyes dart to Will. “-the demagorgon hunted when it was here, right?”

Will shudders, almost not noticable but Steve was watching the kid just like he assumes the others are too. It takes a moment, but Will collects himself again. “So you think a demagorgon was there 2 years ago?”

Mike shrugs. “It doesn't have to be a demagorgon, but we are thinking about all kinds of supernatural shit right? Ghosts, werewolves, vampires, grim, chupacabras, centaurs, hippogriffs, bigfoot, dragons. They all need to eat somehow.”

Steve doesn't even recognize half those things Mike just listed. None.

“And you think a centaur eats 30 cows?” Dustin asks. For someone who has been driving the whole idea, there is an incredible amount of scepticism in his voice.

“Well it is a start!” Steve interrupts Dustin from adding anything to that. All the boys turn to look at him in surprise. “What?! It is. We have absolutely no idea what to look for and 30 dead cows are more than we had before.”

“We need to find out more about it.” Lucas scratches his temple and rests his head on the pile of books infront of him. “Where was it?”

“Dollen, Indiana.”

That really isn't so far from Hawkins, maybe 40 miles or so, and Steve shudders at the idea of another _anything_ so close to home. He fucking hates knowing that there might be more of this shit out there, he would give quite a lot to just go back to a time when he did not know about the fucking supernatural.

“Okay, so the next time we go to the archiv, we can look for more mentions of it.” Dustin says. He points at Steve. “You can drive us to Dollen so we can go to the library there.”

Steve pauses. “All of us? We should split up to cover more ground more quickly. And what are we even going to look for.”

“We should speak to the farmer who was suspected and see why he was suspected.” Mike, the only person who actually knows the details of the article, says. He frowns. “The article sounds a bit as though the cows were just killed, maybe we should get more details. Nancy said the demagorgon just normally ate the deer when she got lost in the Upside Down.”

“Oh, like Dart ate Mews!” Dustin says, sounding horribly happy about talking about his lifelong cats death. Sometimes Steve worries about the kid.

“Okay, so I'll drive to Dollen.” Steve nods. No matter how much he thinks these kids are completely insane, he kind of agrees with them. This is fun, just as much as it is scaring him. Who knows if this is even _something_ , but it might be and the possibility of that is thrilling. “Who am I taking with me?”

The boys split off and in the end it is Will, who volunteers to go with Steve. Steve isn't exactly sure how bothered he should be that none of the boys actually want to go to Dollen with him, but in the end it doesn't really matter. Will volunteers and the rest of the boys pair off as well.

They agree that they won't go today, it is too late for that, but Steve makes plans with Will to pick him up at 10AM the next morning.

“We should probably tell an adult where we are going.” Steve says and honestly, like in a minutes worth of retrospect, he should have seen it coming when all of the kids look at him with a sort of guilty amusement. Yeah, it is a strange look.

“We don't have to worry any of the adults about this Steve.” Dustin says quietly. “Afterall you are an adult.”

And God, Steve fucking hates that this kind of logic makes sense to him by now.

  
  


 


End file.
